


Orbiting Bodies

by Scarlet_Gryphon



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Comments are highly appreciated!, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-01 08:34:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20812172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarlet_Gryphon/pseuds/Scarlet_Gryphon
Summary: They dance around one another like binary stars now rather than before when they’d been more like two ships passing on occasion on a vast ocean. Minerva thinks it fitting, and she’s glad that they’ve found their way here after so much hardship and strife.(Spoilers for the Amnesty finale.)





	Orbiting Bodies

It is strange not to be preparing for the next battle, Minerva thinks. Her life has been either fighting or training others to fight since she was strong enough to lift a sword. Now the sharpest thing she lifts most days is a saw that she uses to help clear fallen limbs and trees that are too big for even her to easily haul away. The work is long and tiring, the actions of dig, lift, plant, cut, and haul turning into a seemingly unending blur. It’s been quite some time since she’s been this tired this regularly, but the results are worth it. Day by day, she and the others are revitalizing that which has been ravaged by fire, adding new life in the face of death.

Minerva can see that her companions are as tired as she is, but there’s an air of accomplishment in the large tent that serves as the mess hall and general gathering place for the workers. She makes her way through the tables that populate the mess hall, heading to the one where her oldest friend is sitting. Duck Newton looks as exhausted as everyone else, but he also wears a sense of satisfaction and pride as easily as he used to bear his chosen weapon in battle.

Duck looks up when she sits down across from him and gives her a small, tired smile that nonetheless has a deep well of fondness behind it. The corners of his eyes and mouth crinkle as he smiles at her, and Minerva can’t help but smile back.

“Hey, Minerva. You doin’ alright?”

Minerva’s smile deepens. That’s Duck in a nutshell: always looking after others before himself. “Yes, Duck Newton, I am doing well. We planted fifty trees today. A fine victory against the destruction wrought upon this place, don’t you think?”

Duck nods. “Yeah, it definitely is.” He puts his fork down on his tray and then reaches out to loosely hold her hand, his palm callused from work and the sword he no longer wields. Minerva shifts her grip, letting their fingers intertwine more firmly, keeping in mind as always that while Duck is still stronger and more resilient than the average human, she is just that much hardier than him. She likes these moments of quiet intimacy, even when they’re in the middle of a public space.

They dance around one another like binary stars now rather than before when they’d been more like two ships passing on occasion on a vast ocean. Minerva thinks it fitting, and she’s glad that they’ve found their way here after so much hardship and strife. She realizes that Duck has asked her something and pulls herself from her woolgathering.

“My apologies, Duck. What was it that you asked?”

Duck laughs and squeezes her hand. “Just wondering if you wanted to take a walk with me after dinner.”

“I would love that.”

The two of them fall into easy conversation after that, eating their dinner between lulls in the conversation. As they step out into the quickly gathering evening hand-in-hand, Minerva looks up to what little of the sky she can see between the branches of the trees high overhead. A full moon shines there, lending its guiding light to the world below.

For once in a very long time, all is peaceful.


End file.
